Short and long collections of words, with thoughts, stories, complaints and comments nestled in, along with peeking in at what other people are reading and watching.

Monday, June 22, 2009

The Pleasures of a Coca-Cola Glass

A few weeks ago, my family and I went to McDonald's in Valencia before heading out to Venice Beach and then Santa Monica. It was a visit that nearly followed a day trip to Disneyland with the graduated 8th graders at my dad's middle school, and not too long after Venice Beach and Santa Monica, we would go to Universal CityWalk to celebrate my sister's graduation from College of the Canyons, since the school snobbishly does not let people attend who are only earning certificates, as my sister was in culinary arts.

Walking to the entrance of the Santa Monica Pier, I told my sister that it felt like we were tourists again. Disneyland previously, Santa Monica then, and I suggested that all we needed to do was visit Hollywood, go on one of those guided, driven tours of the area, possibly go to Universal Studios Hollywood and then fly back home. It's one of the quirks of California: You can live in the state, in one of its many regions, but you're always a tourist somewhere in the state. It was true of San Francisco when we were there (or at least when I was there with the family, because there was one time I couldn't go due to working diligently and ultimately uselessly for The Signal), and it was also true when we went to Universal CityWalk because it had been four years since we were last there.

Anyway, the Coca-Cola glasses at McDonald's.

An extra-large Value Meal gets you a Coca-Cola Collectible glass. I go for the extra-large meal anyway because I like the fries and a bigger Coca-Cola is always good. So I got a Coca-Cola glass. My sister got the purple one and I got the green one, which looked like blue when the manager took it out from under the counter. My sister still claims that it looks blue, but a photo of the glasses in a row shows that I clearly did not get the blue one. Not a major meltdown type of event because I see enough variations of blue every day. The menu bar at the bottom of the screen on this computer is blue.

I like this glass anyway, regardless of the color. The contour of it makes it very friendly toward the type of bagged ice we buy. The ice, when it falls into the glass, makes a very satisfying, determined clink, and the ice doesn't always fill up the top completely, so I like to dig into the freezer, finding just those right pieces for that exact fit. It's also that time of year when I favor iced tea over hot tea, which means not only do I make the Lipton Cold Brew tea in the Arrowhead gallon jugs, I also brew my usual Bigelow Lemon Lift tea and Twining's Lady Grey tea, pouring them into an ice-filled glass. I haven't yet tried that in this Coca-Cola glass, but I know so far that I'm impatient waiting for the tea to cool down a bit. Once I pour it through the ice in the glass, about 60% of the ice melts right away. I need tea. I don't like to wait that long. At the same time, I should be a little more patient because so far, despite melting nearly all of the ice right away, those teas are also good iced. I'll try it again, when I'm sure I can take a few minutes for it.

I just looked at the photo of the Coca-Cola glasses again, and held my glass up to the computer monitor: That's definitely tinted green. But this is one of those instances where the item and its use is more important than the color.

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About This Guy

A reader since the age of two; a writer since the age of 11; an obsessive movie buff since 7th grade; passionate about aviation since toddlerhood; vastly interested in the American presidency and the Supreme Court; and an author with his first book, "What If They Lived?", published by BearManor Media (Be a dear and buy a copy), and currently at work on his second book.
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